In 2014 I decided together with a colleague to create an online-course aimed at strengthening active music teachers in their role as material-creators e.g. creating their own backingtracks and sheet music and also being able to record themselves and their students with a DAW (digital audio workstation). This was my first attempt at creating a course entirely online and although the course ran for three years with many applicants each year, we decided to shut it down. One of the reasons for this was student completion (or lack thereof). We discussed possible reasons for this for some time and then went on to other things, but have now due to Covid and the need for more online learning decided to give this course another go, only this time we will need to restructure everything, split it up into multiple courses and learn from our mistakes.
The “easy” explanations for our failure (yes, I see it as that) were in the beginning the software and the digital platforms: “Adobe connect is useless, Fronter won’t let students work with big files etc.” but the more I learn about networked learning, learning in communities, PBL, constructive alignment etc., the more I realize we need to totally reconstruct our earlier attempts.
During Topic 4 While reading through In the Community of Inquiry Blended Learning Evaluation (Cleveland-Innes, M. & Wilton, D. (2018) I reflected over several of the statements in the evaluation and applied them to our earlier attempt at online courses. These stood out as aspects that were non-existent:
- My actions reinforce the development of a sense of community among course participants.
- I acknowledge emotion expressed by the students in my course.
- Students in my course are able to form distinct impressions of some other course participants.
- Students feel comfortable interacting with other course participants.
- Getting to know other course participants gives students a sense of belonging in my course.
- Emotion is expressed, online or face to face, among the students in my course.
Long story short, we had 80 students sitting by themselves with no contact between each other watching tutorial-videos made by us (most of which in a monotone and serious voice) and doing tasks independently and asynchronous. Zero sence of community and student engagement through emotional interaction.
This fall and everything I’ve participated in, from being a mentor in LTU:s Qualifying course for university teachers which is part of a development program (PNL), to participating in ONL-202 has inspired me and forced me to have a good look in the mirror regarding what I do and how I go about doing it. …like some sort of a reboot.
Resources
Cleveland-Innes, M. & Wilton, D. (2018). Guide to Blended Learning. Burnaby: Commonwealth of Learning. Appendix 1. p.74-77. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/3095/2018_Cleveland-Innes- Wilton_Guide-to-Blended-Learning.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
